Cox Feels Heat Even While Braves Cook Up Another Title

"Believe me, this year I found out how important I am," Leyland said. "The players are the key to this business. What am I without (Barry) Bonds and (Doug) Drabek?"

Tom Kelly, whose Minnesota Twins edged Atlanta in the '91 Series, said criticism of Cox is "just standard operating procedure. If you win, great. If you don't, you're doing something wrong. In the fans' eyes I'm sure Bobby wasn't real smart the first couple of months. Now I guess he's gotten a lot smarter."

Giants manager Dusty Baker, not long removed from playing days, said: "People get spoiled if you don't win it all. The same thing happened to us in L.A. in '77 and '78," when the Dodgers lost twice to the Yankees in the Series.

"We walked around town and people looked us like we were losers and chokers," Baker said.

It's a malady with which Gaston and general manager Pat Gillick are familiar in Toronto. Until they won it last year, the Blue Jays had become known for late-season and postseason failures.

"Fans get frustrated," said Gillick, Cox's boss with the Jays. "It's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately thing."

Braves coach Pat Corrales, a former manager with Texas, Philadelphia and Cleveland, also has become accustomed to criticism.

"I was having breakfast in San Francisco, and two people in the booth next to me are talking about the game from the night before," he said. "They're talking about how the Giants would've won if not for an error that led to a couple of runs. I turned around and said, `How do you think the Giants got two runs? Justice misplayed a ball and another one got by (Mark) Lemke.' But it's a fan, and to a fan it's a one-way street, the way they want to see it."

Schuerholz senses only the extreme minority has been critical of Cox.

"Most knowledgeable fans who don't have their opinions formed for them by some over-opinionated, often-times unknowing air personality don't feel that way about Bobby," he said. "It's only those who allow themselves to have their opinions molded by said unknowing air personality who make those statements.

"This team has been in two World Series and is fighting for a third and Bobby is managing. You've never seen displayed on this team discord or turmoil caused by players' dislike for the manager, which we've seen frequently in other places. Do people always agree with every decision he makes? No. But name me a manager, from Connie Mack on down, whom everybody agreed with."

Baker said the mere fact that the Braves have been able to make second- half runs three straight seasons "is either a reflection of what (players) think of the manager or what they think of themselves. But that's also a reflection of the manager. He gives them the freedom to play."

If there has been one consistent knock on Cox, even through the up days, it's that he can be loyal to a fault, such as continuing to play a veteran whose batting average has deflated, like Greg Olson, or whose earned-run average has exploded, like Stanton.

But Cox always has fit the description of a players' manager. It goes back to his upbringing in Fresno, Calif. As a player, he constantly battled injuries and played for 12 teams in 12 years, the Yankees for two years and 11 minor-league towns for the rest.

He will list the consummate nice guy, Ralph Houk, as his favorite manager.

He will label as "stupid" the rip-him-in-the-tabloids style of Billy Martin, under whom he served as Yanks first-base coach in the 1977 championship season. Most of the time he won't attack parties by yelling into a microphone. This is a guy who showed up for the news conference of his own firing in 1981 to basically say, hey, it has been great.

But the heat has caused Cox to talk about himself, usually his least-favorite subject.

"I know what I'm doing is right," he said. "We're trying to win games. (People) almost make it out as if we're trying to lose. Whatever I do, I do very well."

Schuerholz remains baffled.

"The fact of the matter is," he said, "if we had scored runs the first half of the year the way everybody expected us to, we'd be sitting here talking about Bobby being a candidate for manager of the year for the third straight year-and he still might be if we win this thing."